Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa Hardcover – March 29, 2011

I am one of those guys who wants to know a little about a lot of different international conflicts since that was one of my focuses as a political science student so I picked up Dancing in the Glory of Monsters. I think Jason K. Stearns comes as close as anyone may come to explaining the complicated structure of alliances and factions that seem to move like tectonic plates and have led to three different stages of war over the last couple of decades.

Stearns laments that the international community doesn’t understand the conflict or chooses not to understand the conflict. It is my view that people in general prefer the black and white, one side good, other side evil, and any conflict that can’t be hammered into that prism is problematic. So when you are talking a six sided conflict, you shouldn’t be surprised when people turn the channel so to speak. Still Stearns does a really impressive job of laying out why the conflicts have started and why they have proven so difficult to put out in a relatively brief 340 page format.

A superb look at the tragedy that is DR Congo, through the eyes of a journalist who never afraid to go right to his sources. What is special about this book is that Stearns never lets you forget that he was covering the conflict and the aftermath as a journalist, it made you feel that you were going along with him interviewing victims and perpetrators of one of the greatest tragedies of all times. Stearns' angle for Dancing in the Glory of Monsters was not to point fingers at individuals (though in some cases it was truly unavoidable), but rather to showcase that the Congolese themselves were victims of colonial rule, Cold War gamesmanship, and neglect as a whole - and this he did brilliantly.I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in modern history.

Review – Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason Stearns

“Dancing in the Glory of Monsters” is an overview of the Congolese Wars about 1996 – 2011. The book covers history and current events from about 1990 to about 2011. There is much positive acclaim for this book quoted in the front of the book from such as the New York Time Book Review, Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, The Economist, The Financial Times and many other reviewers of prominence. Most are calling Jason Stearn's efforts the most balanced and insightful look into the Congolese Wars available.

Jason Stearns has spent considerable time in the Congo researching this book. There are several fascinating personal interviews by Stearns himself reported on with various surviving main players in the story.

The book is well written, and very readable. The story is well told. There are maps, a mite bit too small in my Kindle version that are very helpful.

References are made to the brutality of the wars without subjecting the reader unnecessarily to the gore and bloodshed. Although Gore and Bloodshed cannot be totally avoided in reporting on these wars. The personalities of the various leaders of all sides are well outlined and discussed, with their impact on the Wars and on The Congo. The extreme corruption that made matters much worse is outlined. The influence of Rwanda and Uganda are well displayed. The effects of tribalism, especially the Hutu's and the Tutsi's and that of the Congolese leaders are discussed in some detail. There are references to western nations such as United States, Canada, Cuba, Britain, and Belgium and the parts they played. The affects of the diamond and mineral trade are discussed.

For those with an interest in recent African History, “Dancing in the Glory of Monsters” is an absolute must to understand this era and locality.

In the hundred years of bloodshed that was the 20th century, the Congo War is a tragedy that has mostly been ignored by the West, and forgotten by history. Something like five million people died, placing the Congo War as the the 6th largest mass killing in the 20th century, the deadliest event since the Second World War, and the 27th largest in recorded history, according to The Great Big Book of Horrible Things. And there is a reason for this, beyond Western dismissals of Africa in general. As Stearns puts it in his introduction, "How do you cover a war that involves at least twenty different rebel groups and the armies of nine countries, yet does not seem to have a clear cause or objective?"

Stearns does his best, using his skills as an investigative journalist to move through the key players in a rolling series of conflicts that started with the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, and linger today, despite a peace conference in 2002. While no one can speak for all the dead, Stearns tries, letting the survivors of genocidal attacks, epidemic ridden refugee camps, death marches, mass rape, and induction into armies of child soldiers tell their stories in their own words. It is impossible not to be moved.

On the broader political front, Stearns has a lot to say about the failures of institutions. The Congo was systematically hollowed out, first by the colonial slave trade, then the nightmare of King Leopold's Free State, and then by the decades long rule of Mobutu Sésé Seko, who turned divide and rule into an art, leaving a military that was incapable of conducting a coup against him, but also incapable of mounting any sort of defense against the innumerable rebel groups, foreign armies, and bandit gangs who rose up in the void. When the Rwandan government sought vengeance on Hutu génocidaires who had fled to the Congo with millions of refugee/hostages and were planning a return, the Congo was unable to resist. Rebel leader and new President Laurent Kabila had barely a year before the international coalition that installed him tried to oust him. This aggression, undoubtedly Tutsi lead, inspired retaliation against the Tutsi minority inside the Congo, and instigated a spiral of ethnic violence. It's impossible to blame people for turning to their primary loyalties, their family and ethnic group, and also impossible not to see the political exacerbation of ethnic tension as a major driver of violence. Whatever one's affiliation, it is too easy to see people with differently shaped noses as vermin to be exterminated.

There's also plenty of military daring and horrific absurdity to go around. Rwandan military plans involved marching 1,000 miles from the border to Kinshasa, about the same distance as Moscow to Berlin, except this time it's through practically trackless jungle. Congolese soldiers deserted in droves, their armor-heavy columns cut to shreds by motivated guerrilla bands of child soldiers. Laurent Kabila's authoritarian regime imposed taxes which would come to 230% of profits, if they were ever payed. At one of the collapses of the government, the minister of finance announced "Gentlemen, I have taken the precaution of emptying the treasury. It is in bags in trucks outside. You each get $22,000. Do the best that you can."

As I write this, President Joseph Kabila is planning to step down after elections in December 2018, after unconstitutionally extending his rule for two years, and the country may be slipping into war again. It's hard to fault the international community for not doing more, in a country with such terrible infrastructure, and without a clear moral narrative to support. There's always money to be made in turmoil, with the Congo's mineral wealth is available to the daring and unscrupulous. The people of the Congo deserve better. If not justice, they at least deserve a honor memorial for their dead.